Silver! Japanese Ladies Team Pursuit Speed Skating Team lose by 0.03 seconds to Germany

Written By: guyjin on February 28, 2010 19 Comments

The Japanese Ladies’ Team Pursuit Speed Skating team have won a silver medal for Japan on the second last day of competition. The team of Hozumi Masako, Kodaira Nao, and Tabata Maki (and reserve, 15 year old Takagi Miho) defeated Korea in the quarter final by 4.56 seconds, before meeting Poland in the semi final. That race was razor close, with Japan pulling out a 0.19 second victory. Japan, ranked 3rd in the world heading into the Olympics, met Germany, ranked 4th, in the final. Japan took an early lead, being 1.6 seconds ahead after 3 laps. But Germany pulled it back, winning by the narrowest margin of just 0.03 seconds. It was a great effort by Japan, missing out on the nation’s first gold medal at these games by an incomprehensible 3 hundredths of a second. Poland took the bronze medal over the United States.

Hozumi Masako was born in Hokkaido in 1986, and began skating in elementary school. She was unable to participate in the Torino olympics due to injury, In other events at Vancouver, she came 6th in the Ladies 3000m, and 7th in the 5000m. Apparently when she was in high school, she won an eating contest, by eating 23 cup ramen in 3 minutes. Her prize was a year’s supply of potatoes….

Kodaira Nao was born in Nagano in 1986. At the age of 15, she became the youngest sprint national champion in Japan. At the 2009 World Cup event in Berlin, she placed 3rd in the 500m and 2nd in the 1000m, marking the best placings ever by a Japanese lady in both events. At Vancouver, Kodaira placed 5th in both the 1000m and 1500m, and 12th in the 500m.

Tabata Maki is the veteran of the team, born in Hokkaido in 1974. Vancouver is the 4th Olympics for Tabata. She previously came 16th in the 1500m at Lillehammer in 1994, 6th in the 3000m, 8th in the 5000m and 9th in the 1500m at Salt Lake in 2002, and then 14th in the 3000m, 15th in the 1500m, 17th in the 1000m, and 4th in the team pursuit at the Torino Olympics in 2006. She had also been selected for the 1998 Nagano Olympics, but was forced to pull out due to injury.

Takagi Miho was born in Hokkaido in 1994. She began skating at the age of 5, because her brother and sister were also speed skaters. Takagi is also a strong soccer player, and has trained with the national U-15 squad. Her selection in the Vancouver squad made her the youngest speed skater to represent Japan at the Olympics. In these Olympics, she placed 35th in the 1000m and 23rd in the 1500m.